LIQUIDITY

Practice Research Symposium

10am-6pm, Friday 14 June 2013

Middlesex University, Hendon, Grove Building G229

This one-day practice research symposium sets out to explore the many articulations, explorations and manifestations of ‘liquidity’ in contemporary visual and material culture, history and theory. The event offers a unique opportunity for practitioners, researchers and scholars working across different fields to engage with any topic related to ‘liquidity’ broadly conceived.

Liquid modern life is a daily rehearsal of universal transience. Today’s useful and indispensable objects, with few and possibly no exceptions, are tomorrow’s waste. Everything is disposable, nothing is truly necessary, nothing is irreplaceable. Everything is born engraved with the brand of death. Everything is offered with a use-by date attached. All things, born or made, human or not, are until further notice dispensable. Paraphrasing an old and famous statement, I would say that a spectre hovers over the liquid modern world, over its denizens and all their labours and creations; and that is the spectre of redundancy.

Organised by susan pui san lok, with thanks to Clare Barry, Alison Manley, Marianne Markowski, and Harry Willis-Fleming. Supported by ADRI, the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University.